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Pope John Paul II criticizes "Bible-only" thinking in his latest encyclical letter, "Faith and Reason" (Fides et Ratio). The Pope, a onetime philosophy professor, warns against "fideism," the idea that rational knowledge has little value for faith. He condemns "biblicism" as "one currently widespread" symptom of the problem. John Paul redefines biblicism as the tendency "to make the reading and exegesis of Scripture the sole criterion of truth." The rule of Christian faith, the Pope claims, is unity among three sources of truth: "Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium [teaching authority] of the Church" (What in the World, Vol. 25, No. 3, 1999).

Don't preach to us you hypocrite!

Hello, Big Mack! Are you really that surprised that the Pope is a Catholic? Don't you think we Catholics here all take our marching orders from the Vatican? Then why does the Pope making the same arguments we make startle you?

BTW, I hope you saw I apologized for the remark about "personal satisfaction" or whatever I said. Please disregard it.

Why is it so important to you that we affirm, like you, that Mary is the "mother of God"? Is it the password for some secret sect? Why must she be the subject of every sentence? Why is it not enough for you or the R catholic church for us to say JESUS is GOD? The way some venerate her, it reminds me of that goddess, Isis.

I thought I answerd this yesterday? We want you to affirm it because it is true and because it will be one instance in which we can agree. It is also one instance in which the Catholics are not wrong. Can you imagine it?

BTW, Mary is seemingly "the subject of every sentence" here because we are defending her and misconceptions about what we teach. You yourself can see how Protestants continue to think we teach that she pre-exists God or created God. We have the right and duty to respond and to try to teach what we actually teach and not what the misguided think we teach.